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Washington, D.C., March 20th – Congressman Jim Moran, Virginia Democrat, led a contingent of 76 key lawmakers in sending House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey a letter requesting that funding for failed abstinence-only sexual education programs be left out of this year’s Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Bill.
“Our tax dollars should be used to fund programs that benefit the public good, not on unsuccessful, often counter-productive, ideologically-driven boondoggles,” said Rep. Jim Moran. “Recent studies have shown abstinence-only programs are not working – in some cases even leading to higher levels of sexual activity. We know comprehensive sex ed is effective; it has a proven track record. Federal funding should be going to programs that work, not those shown to be failing our youth. I look forward to working with Chairman Obey on this important issue.”
The letter, signed by 76 lawmakers, requests that the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program in the Fiscal Year 2009 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill go unfunded this year.
More than $1 billion has been spent on “abstinence-only” programs in the last decade and annual funding for these programs now stands at an all-time high of $176 million. The CBAE account alone has grown from $20 million appropriated in FY’01 to $113 million appropriated for the current fiscal year.
Yet, despite this record level of funding, in April 2007, the independent research firm Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. released a study – commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – which concluded that students in “abstinence-only” programs were no more likely to abstain from sex, delay initiation of sex, or have fewer sexual partners than students who did not participate.
Since that report was issued, 13 states have evaluated their federally funded “abstinence-only” programs and not a single one found positive, long-term impact. In fact, in some cases young people who participated in the programs actually increased their sexual activity. As a result of these and other evaluations, 15 states have rejected federal “abstinence-only” funding.
In addition to being ineffective, in recent years there has been an increase in the number of federally funded programs using curricula that provide medically inaccurate or misleading information. Some of these medical inaccuracies include telling young people that HIV can be transmitted by sweat and tears, calling condoms "antiquated" by citing wildly inaccurate failure rates as high as 70 percent, and giving inaccurate symptoms and outcomes of sexually transmitted diseases. Rep. Moran succeeded last year in including an amendment to the FY’08 LHHS Bill requiring programs be certified as medically accurate if they were to receive federal funding.
Quotes:
Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) observed, “Federal government investments in abstinence-only programming have risen dramatically over the last five years. Yet, study after study has found that these programs are ineffective – failing to decrease rates of teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease. It is time to invest in America’s youth by investing taxpayer dollars in comprehensive sex education programs that have a proven track record of success. When we provide our teens with honest and medically-accurate information, we keep them from engaging in risky behavior.” (Crowley contact: Angela Barranco (202) 225-3965)
Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA) stated, “As part of our commitment to fiscal responsibility, we must weed out wasteful spending, such as that spent on ineffective abstinence-only education programs,” said Congresswoman Lois Capps, a former school nurse. “I’m appalled that we are spending federal funds on programs that GAO has found give false and misleading health related information to our kids. We have a commitment to give our young people factually correct information, and not perpetuate myths that have real consequences to their health.” (Capps contact: Emily Kryder (o) 202-226-7747 (c) 202-225-6513)
"In a country with the highest teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease rates in the industrialized world, we have a responsibility to ensure that our youth has access to medically accurate, comprehensive sex education with a history of success," said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY). "Study after study has proven that abstinence-only education simply does not work and we cannot afford to waste millions of taxpayer dollars on programs that we know to be a failure. If we really want to prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease, the only answer is to empower our young people with accurate information." (Slaughter contact: Aimee Ghosh (o) 202-225-4431 (c) 202-225-3041)
“The mountain of evidence illustrating the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only education is enough to persuade anyone,” said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, Vice Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has jurisdiction over health care policy. “While the Bush Administration continues to slash key health care programs because they are not demonstrating effectiveness, they insist on funding this program which demonstrates its ineffectiveness – evidenced by a 10-year study commissioned by the Bush Administration itself.” (DeGette contact: Kristofer Eisenla, (o) 202-225-4431 (c) 202-225-3041)
"As a former teacher and state superintendent of education, I commend Rep. Moran and his colleagues for standing up for our teens' health," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "Americans, especially parents, are anxious about the rise in the teen birth rate and reports that one in four teen girls have a sexually transmitted infection. The Bush-backed 'abstinence-only' policies that led to these problems are failing. The public wants Congress to follow Rep. Moran's lead and make the changes necessary to ensure our teens get the factual information they need to make responsible decisions and protect themselves from disease."
William Smith, Vice President for Public Policy at the Sexual Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) stated, “Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs have been an enormous waste of resources. Representative Moran and his colleagues are to be commended for tackling this issue and echoing the desires of their varied constituencies, including Virginia, a state that has rejected the abstinence-only-until-marriage approach.”
The letter sent to Chairman Obey reads as follows:
March 19, 2008
The Honorable David Obey
Chairman
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services,
Education and Related Agencies
House Appropriations Committee
2358 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Obey:
As you begin work on the Fiscal Year 2009 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill, we urge you to reconsider funding for the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program, and to devote those dollars to other, more effective programs. We thank you for granting the program no new increase in last year’s final bill; that was an important first step.
As you know, more than $1 billion has been spent on “abstinence-only” programs in the last decade and annual funding for these programs now stands at an all-time high of $176 million. The CBAE account alone has grown from $20 million appropriated in FY’01 to $113 million appropriated this year.
However, numerous reports have found that the “abstinence-only” approach simply does not work. For example, in April 2007, the independent research firm Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. released a study – commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – concluding that students in “abstinence-only” programs are no more likely to abstain from sex, delay initiation of sex, or have fewer sexual partners than students who did not participate. Moreover, 13 states have evaluated their federally funded “abstinence-only” programs and not a single one found positive, long-term impact. In fact, in some cases young people who participated in the programs actually increased their sexual activity. As a result of these and other evaluations, at least 15 states have rejected federal “abstinence-only” funding.
Not only do these programs not help our teens abstain from sex, many are rife with scientific inaccuracies, factual errors, and troubling biases that put our teens at greater risk for unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. A 2004 House Government Reform Committee report found that more than two-thirds of CBAE grantees used curricula that “contain false, misleading or distorted information about reproductive health,” such as that condoms fail more often than they actually do, that sweat and tears can transmit HIV, and that women need “financial support” while men need “admiration.” Furthermore, a 2006 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that HHS provides little oversight of federally funded “abstinence-only” programs in regard to medical accuracy. The GAO also found that, by censoring important health information about condoms, CBAE grantees do not comply with section 317P(c)(2) of the Public Health Services Act.
In addition, the nation’s leading medical and public-health organizations – including the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine – do not support the “abstinence-only” approach. The National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine has even criticized the federal government’s investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in the programs as “poor fiscal and public health policy.” We could not agree more.
For all these reasons, we urge you to reconsider the appropriation for the CBAE program for FY’09. With your help, we made great progress in holding the funding line level last year. Now, as responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, we must continue the effort and scale back our nation’s investment in this ineffective program. Our teens – and our taxpaying constituents – deserve nothing less.
Sincerely,
X
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